Mustang gets kick out of comeback goal

STOCKTON — Guillermo Morquecho didn’t just make a comeback Tuesday afternoon; he came back in style.

The freshman forward, who last year tore his medial collateral ligament, scored a picture-perfect bicycle-kick goal as Delta College shut out Gavilan College 4-0.

The maneuver isn’t new to Morquecho, a product of Delta Charter high school, and coach Joshua Bradley reportedly wasn’t too keen on the idea him doing it in practice due to the MCL injury.

Nonetheless, Morquecho wasted no time taking advantage of a prime opportunity.

“This was his first touch of the 2017 season, actually,” Bradley said. “This is him coming back in the first game of the season and his first touch is a bicycle kick into the back of the net, which was fantastic. We figured (afterward) that, yeah, he was good to come back and play.”

Morquecho said more than anything he was just excited to get back onto the turf at Delta College and enjoy the competition with his teammates.

“I felt confident in the players around me,” Morquecho said. “We’re all destined to do good things. I’m just happy to be back and help the team.”

And that bicycle kick option?

“As soon as it bounced up, I didn’t even think about it, it happened in a flash,” he said. “You just have to take those moments. I’ve hit a couple, but not at this level. It’s a dream.”

Teammate Israel Oliveras of Tracy said witnessing the fancy goal was a treat.

“That was excellent, not too many teams have guys who can do that,” said Oliveras, who scored the game’s first goal. “He does (bicycle kicks) in practice, too. He just plays around like that. He just wants to keep doing it.

Delta (3-1-0) has outscored its opponents by a combined 10-3. After Oliveras and Morquecho scored, Delta’s Javeir Gamez scored in the 38th minute to give the Mustangs a 3-0 halftime lead.

Gavilan struggled to keep possession in the second half as its weary bench seldom touched the ball. Delta out-shot the Rams 21-5, and its goalie touched the ball twice in the second half.

“This (game) is a hard gauge because they had 12 players on the bench and we had 20, so on a day when it’s 95 degrees and you have numbers to run the score is not always indicative of the play,” Bradley said. “I thought we did some nice things, but there’s other things we need to improve upon.”

Bradley said the Mustangs, consisting of 16 freshmen and six sophomores, have created a different culture than in years past.

“We have shed all the attitude that we’ve had previous years at Delta, even before I came here,” Bradley said. “It’s an interesting group dynamic. We’re friends, we’re family, we do things off the field that other teams may or may not do. We’ve bonded as a group and because of that we play for the team and not necessarily for the individual.”